Page 73 of Only One Tour Bus

We sit down in a café and order some Alsatian wine. It still hasn’t fully hit me that we won’t be working at the same place after this. It seems cruel for the universe to throw us together on this trip, and then make it harder to see each other after. I was getting used to the idea of gallivanting around the continent with him.

It was a nice thought. Beautiful sights. Romantic nights. At least when our tours met up. But now there won’t even be that.

And that thought does put a damper on this fairy tale locale.

“We’re at Lauterbrunnen.” My voice is strained but has a note of relief in it. Travel days are always long, and they get even longer when there’s an entire afternoon of touring in the middle, and the day traverses three countries.

Very few people took my words of wisdom and bought snacks on their stop, so most people are tired, hungry, and all around unhappy. A lovely combination when you’re trapped in a steel prison with nineteen of them for hours on end.

I wish we could go back to the morning when they were all asleep. Is this what parents feel like? Constantly counting down to nap time and bedtime? Just surviving in the times between sleeps until they can have the peace of their children being unconscious?

“Let’s all move efficiently to get the luggage unloaded and then we can have a nice dinner. Then there’s a bar on site, or you can head straight to bed.” I say the words as much for myself as for the rest of them. Because I am internally counting down the moments until I get to my bed.

Too many people have gotten mad at me for, in no particular order, the distance from Strasbourg to Lauterbrunnen (so, geography), the lack of decent food in a gas station, the amount of hours in a day, their hangover, how uncomfortable bus seats are, how slow border crossings are, and how cold the bus is.

Incidentally, I have no control over any of those things.

Needless to say, I’m ready for some tourist-free time.

Callum has the right idea. He had earbuds in and every time someone came up to him, he said that we were almost there to whatever their question was. They were mad at him too, but no madder than they were at me, who tried to genuinely respond to their concerns. It’s just rude.

But the end is in sight now. We’re pulling up to the lodge that the company uses, a tall triangular structure that used more windows than wood in its construction so that any visitor could see the gorgeous views of Jungfrau and the Swiss Alps around this valley.

All of which are wasted on the ungrateful visitors now, since it’s too dark to see anything. Maybe if they could see the stunning green land, dotted with picturesque farms and other buildings, and the occasional fluffy Swiss cow, all surrounded by soaring mountains and multiple waterfalls, they wouldn’t be so angry.

I hear grumbles but tune them out. We’re so close to the finish line for this day, and everything they want is coming in the next hour. If we can just make it through the next hour.

Laura stops the bus and we start unloading. I leave Callum and his earbuds with the unhappy travelers and enter the building to start check-in.

“Hey, Leon,” I greet the chalet owner, since unlike in other places where the hotels can vary, we always use this lodging on this stop and the owner is very involved in running his chalet.

“Asha! So good to see you, as always. I hope you had good travels.”

“I had travels.” I force a smile and I’m sure Leon gets the point. He’s been doing this a while.

“Ah. Let’s get you sorted quickly.” See, he gets it. He rapidly bangs at the keyboard in front of him, then smiles at me. “All right. Keys for thirteen rooms.”

“It should be fourteen. Eleven for the guests, one for Laura, one for me, and one for Callum.”

“Callum’s here?” Leon looks at his screen with a frown. A frown that doesn’t foreshadow good things for me. “Rob said the tours were combined, but he didn’t say both guides were coming. When we heard, we booked out what we thought was an extra room.”

My heart drops. “But both of us are here.” I’m getting shrill now. “So what does that mean?”

“I’m sorry, Asha. There’s another group here, plus our solo summer tourists, so I only have the thirteen rooms. It’s the high season.”

“What does that mean?”

“There’s only one bedroom for the tour guides. You’ll have to share.”

CHAPTER 32

CALLUM

Asha walks toward me with a frown. That’s not right. She’s got a whole thing about rainbows and sunshine and unicorns and other things that would occupy the mind of a four-year-old. But now she looks like…well, she looks like I usually do. What happened in the chalet?

“What’s wrong?” I drop the suitcase in my hands and look around to see what’s put that look on her face.

“They only have one bedroom for us. Well, two total for crew.” She includes Laura into the conversation, who is helping unload. “Leon thought only one tour leader was coming when he heard the tours were combined, so he booked what he thought was an extra room.”